Both Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) are said to be eyeing the title sponsorship for the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament floated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), sources close to the development confirmed today.
RIL, owned by elder brother Mukesh Ambani, had acquired the Mumbai team last month for $111.9 million (about Rs 448 crore) for ten years. Anil Ambani chose to stay away from the bids for the eight teams last month.
Bidding for the title sponsorship is due February 13 and is expected to attract a base price of Rs 23.6 crore for one year.
The Ambani brothers, who split their father's petrochemicals-to-telecommunications empire on June 18, 2005, had agreed not to enter each other’s areas of business. The agreement, however, does not cover new business areas such as cricket sponsorship.
The brothers' companies are currently in dispute over the supply and pricing of natural gas to ADAG plants from the RIL-owned Krishna-Godavari basin.
Both RIL and ADAG spokesmen declined to comment.
The rights, which offer enormous branding potential, will be given for the first five seasons of IPL. The winner of the title rights holds the first right of refusal for the next five years (the 6th to 10th seasons).
Companies will have to submit a performance guarantee deposit of Rs 10 crore on Monday to participate in the bidding.
The title sponsor has the right to advertise in all IPL match scorecards and programmes and can advertise across a maximum of 12 boards in all 59 matches. It will also get the sponsorship of the Man of the Match award.
The title rights also include mileage on promotional material such as television graphics and on-field branding on the stumps, floodlight pylons, sightscreens, team dugouts and boundary ropes.
BCCI will also issue tickets to the title sponsor and permit branding and promotional activities on tickets.
IPL will begin in April and will host 59 matches that will be played between eight teams.
Apart from RIL's ownership of the Mumbai team, the other team owners are GMR (Delhi), a Shah Rukh Khan consortium (Kolkata), the Emerging Media consortium (Jaipur), Preity Zinta (Mohali), Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad), Vijay Mallya (Bangalore) and India Cement (Chennai).
Source : www.business-standard.com
Aminah Sheikh / Mumbai February 09, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Reliance Fresh MEGA IPO : Ambani bros may float IPO war
MUMBAI: If speculation in the market is to be believed, the Ambani brothers will battle it out on the IPO sweepstakes a few weeks from now.
Sources close to the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Fresh claimed the company is planning a mega public offering that will mop up in the region of Rs 10,000 crore from the capital market. Ostensibly, this will go into part funding its Rs 25,000 crore mega retail venture.
Sources added that final touches are being added to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) that will be filed with market regulator Sebi over the next couple of days.
On their part, a spokesperson for Reliance said, ‘‘There is no truth whatsoever.'' But the denials haven't stopped the excitement in the gray market. In large part because Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (R-Comm), filed its draft prospectus with Sebi for its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday.
Reliance Infratel, which mainly builds, owns and manages telecom towers of R-Comm, is hoping to mop up Rs 6,000 crore from the market. If all goes to plan, both companies could hit the market around April-May of this year, market sources said.
Not much is known of what the contours of Reliance Fresh's IPO may be like. As for Reliance Infratel, it is proposing to offer roughly 8.9 crore shares in the company. Right now, 95% of Reliance Infratel is owned by RelCom while a host of private equity players own the balance 5% in the company. The issue proceeds would be utilized to finance setting up of passive telecom infrastructure sites and for general corporate purposes, the company said in a release.
Apart from building, owning and managing RelComm's telecom towers and other assets, it also provides these passive telecommunication infrastructure assets on a shared basis to wireless service providers and other communications service providers.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Sources close to the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Fresh claimed the company is planning a mega public offering that will mop up in the region of Rs 10,000 crore from the capital market. Ostensibly, this will go into part funding its Rs 25,000 crore mega retail venture.
Sources added that final touches are being added to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) that will be filed with market regulator Sebi over the next couple of days.
On their part, a spokesperson for Reliance said, ‘‘There is no truth whatsoever.'' But the denials haven't stopped the excitement in the gray market. In large part because Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (R-Comm), filed its draft prospectus with Sebi for its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday.
Reliance Infratel, which mainly builds, owns and manages telecom towers of R-Comm, is hoping to mop up Rs 6,000 crore from the market. If all goes to plan, both companies could hit the market around April-May of this year, market sources said.
Not much is known of what the contours of Reliance Fresh's IPO may be like. As for Reliance Infratel, it is proposing to offer roughly 8.9 crore shares in the company. Right now, 95% of Reliance Infratel is owned by RelCom while a host of private equity players own the balance 5% in the company. The issue proceeds would be utilized to finance setting up of passive telecom infrastructure sites and for general corporate purposes, the company said in a release.
Apart from building, owning and managing RelComm's telecom towers and other assets, it also provides these passive telecommunication infrastructure assets on a shared basis to wireless service providers and other communications service providers.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Reliance Retail opens its new Mart in Jamnagar
JAMNAGAR: In an event devoid of its characteristic pomp, Reliance Retail on Wednesday opened its second retail outlet Reliance Mart in Jamnagar.
The newly-launched store promises to get bigger than the company’s biggest store in Ahmedabad once the second phase is completed within the next four months. The 1.65 lakh sq feet Ahmedabad store is country’s biggest standalone retail outlet.
The Jamnagar outlet is spread over 83,000 sq feet and after the second phase, the total area will be close to 3 lakh square feet, almost double of its Ahmedabad stores which has come up over 1.65 lakh square feet.
“The hyper mart includes shopping area of 83,000 sq feet, a multiplex, parking and food zone. The main consumers will be the employees of the Reliance refinery apart from residents of Jamnagar and also those from Rajkot and Junagadh districts,” said Reliance group president Parimal Nathwani.
The company is keen to take faster strides in the growing retail sector in Gujarat by opening numerous hyper marts including one in the IPCL campus at Vadodara. In the first phase, only the shopping floor has been opened, while the other two floors are still under construction.
“Within the next four-five months, it will be the largest in retail space in Gujarat. With an investment of Rs 80 crore. The hypermart will carry 35,000 products in every category including fresh food, grocery items, home care products, apparel and accessories, non-food FMCG products, consumer durables and IT,Automotive accessories, lifestyle product and footwear,” he said.
In future, Reliance Mart will have more than one lakh product range. “Currently we have 10,000-12,000 employees from Reliance and the staff strength will touch the 35,000 level once the new refinery is complete. We also expect big footfalls from the employees of the Essar township who live just five kilometre away from our hyper-market,” Mr Nathwani told ET after inaugurating the completely automated premises.
“Apart from the Reliance employees, the location of the mart at the national highway will attract traffic that goes towards Dwarka and other adjacent places,” said the company MD A G Dawda. The company expects to attract 5,000 customers per day and the venue will provide them with full entertainment, as well as cheaper products.
“The main strategy is to sell available and other products at cheaper prices than anyone else,” CEO hyper mart K Radhakrishnan said during the inauguration. The mega stores include the country’s first auto servicing zone situated within the mart itself.
According to the chief executive (automotive services) Arun Dey, it is first of its kind in the country within the mall territory. But Reliance will carry the model wherever space is available. We are also coming up with standalone Reliance Autozones in Haryana and Maharashtra soon while there will be 8-10 such servicing centres in the country. The servicing centre will provide services for two as well as four-wheelers.
The retail giant has plans to come up with the hypermart model in all major cities of Gujarat including four in Ahmedabad, one in Gandhinagar, two in Rajkot, three in Surat, two in Jamnagar and two in Vadodara within less than two years.
Apart from Gujarat, Reliance Mart will be opened in Maharashtra, Chennai and all other states of the country. This year, 30 Reliance Marts will be opened. By 2009, Reliance will be investing Rs 33,000 - 40,000 crore in all forms of retail biz, Mr Nathwani said.
31 Jan, 2008, 0147 hrs IST,Papiya Pattanayak, TNN
Economic Times
Carrefour may partner with Reliance in retail
NEW DELHI: French retail giant Carrefour has been trying to enter the Indian market for a while with little success so far. Numerous attempts to enter into partnerships with Indian companies have gone nowhere. But for two weeks now, industry has been abuzz with talks of a possible deal between two giants — the French retailer and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail.
The trigger was a recent meeting between Carrefour’s top team and a few executives from Mukesh Ambani’s office. Sources also indicated that a top Reliance team led by Mr Ambani’s close associate Manoj Modi is likely to go to France for further talks. “If it happens, it will be a global alliance. But these things take very long time to materialise,” said sources.
The exact contours of a possible Carrefour-Reliance tie-up is still unclear. But sources said that Reliance could well emerge as a potential partner for Carrefour’s cash-and-carry business in India. The deal might be akin to the Bharti-Wal-Mart arrangement, sources added, but this could not be confirmed.
For the past two years or so, Carrefour has opened up dialogue with a range of partners, including DLF, Parsvnath and the Wadia group. After a considerable soul searching on the tenure of its Indian strategy, Carrefour is said to have figured out that its Indian partner must possess three key strengths: a cache of prime real estate, undeniable clout with the government and a long-term interest in retail. Reliance scores on all counts. It has already tied up 30-35 million sqft area across the country.
And its ability to influence policy in the corridors of power remains unmatched. It is also committed to the retail business unlike real estate companies which are merely looking for lease or sell commercial space.
But there’s clearly one issue where, if a deal with Carrefour finally materialises, will come as a surprise. Reliance does not have a track record of partnerships. So far, India’s biggest private sector company has little experience in managing complex joint ventures.
Source : 4 Jan, 2008, 1530 hrs IST,Mayur Shekhar Jha & Chaitali Chakravarty, TNN
Economic Times.
The trigger was a recent meeting between Carrefour’s top team and a few executives from Mukesh Ambani’s office. Sources also indicated that a top Reliance team led by Mr Ambani’s close associate Manoj Modi is likely to go to France for further talks. “If it happens, it will be a global alliance. But these things take very long time to materialise,” said sources.
The exact contours of a possible Carrefour-Reliance tie-up is still unclear. But sources said that Reliance could well emerge as a potential partner for Carrefour’s cash-and-carry business in India. The deal might be akin to the Bharti-Wal-Mart arrangement, sources added, but this could not be confirmed.
For the past two years or so, Carrefour has opened up dialogue with a range of partners, including DLF, Parsvnath and the Wadia group. After a considerable soul searching on the tenure of its Indian strategy, Carrefour is said to have figured out that its Indian partner must possess three key strengths: a cache of prime real estate, undeniable clout with the government and a long-term interest in retail. Reliance scores on all counts. It has already tied up 30-35 million sqft area across the country.
And its ability to influence policy in the corridors of power remains unmatched. It is also committed to the retail business unlike real estate companies which are merely looking for lease or sell commercial space.
But there’s clearly one issue where, if a deal with Carrefour finally materialises, will come as a surprise. Reliance does not have a track record of partnerships. So far, India’s biggest private sector company has little experience in managing complex joint ventures.
Source : 4 Jan, 2008, 1530 hrs IST,Mayur Shekhar Jha & Chaitali Chakravarty, TNN
Economic Times.
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